In This plenary at the LSE (BALEAP PIM, Sat 19 March 2016), Ursula Wingate argues for a view of in-sessional EAP that embeds teachers within departments and has them collaborating closely with subject specialists.

Wingate is preaching to the converted a bit here, and perhaps does not realise the extent to which some of this is already happening across the UK. A great talk nevertheless. Something we are all working towards, in our own ways, given the affordances of our local contexts.

BALEAP PIM - Process and Practice in EAP. November 14th 2015. Arts Tower, The University of Sheffield.

Steve Kirk's insight:

Diane Schmitt, BALEAP Chair, closed the Sheffield University one-day conference on EAP processes and practice (BALEAP PIM) with this talk on bringing theory and practice, theorising and practising closer together. Diane notes that research academics are often invited to EAP practitioner conferences to keynote, and tellingly asks how often we see practitioners invited to give plenaries at research-oriented conferences. We have a long way to go...

A long overdue initiative to bring together students, researchers, practitioners and other professionals in English for Academic Purposes, to talk around issues of doctoral studies - Starting out, developing, failing, failing better, collaborating...and staying proudly in the field after completing, such that we change things from the inside.

The critical grounded theory presented in this book offers valuable insights on the social processes and strategies used by Blended English for Academic Purposes Professionals (BLEAPs) at higher education institutions, as they struggle to negotiate

Steve Kirk's insight:

PDF copy of this excellent book. Available via Gregory Hadley's Academia.edu site. I bought the hardback and ordered a copy for our university library. This should be on everyone's reading list. Important work. Thanks to @muranava for bringing my attention to this version, and to @alexanderding for recommending the book in the first place.

Ray Carey and colleagues are "compiling a corpus of these English-language examiners’ statements submitted in 2011 & 2012 to six University of Helsinki faculties. We finished this task last month, ending up with 402,0135 words of text (the WrELFA corpus overall has passed 800,000 words since my last update). During that process, Ruut compiled figures from each of the faculties on how many examiners’ statements were submitted and what language they were written in. This post looks at where English stands in the examination process of one of the top research universities in Europe."

"To recognise the uniqueness of the writing programme created at each university"

Steve Kirk's insight:

A Writing Programs Worldwide initiative and web hub to "...build a dialogic transnational community of writing scholars, teachers, and administrators to share their discoveries and struggles", particularly in relation to the local experience of teaching writing and building writing programmes.

Bristol University's Centre for English Language & Foundation Studies have a blog for their Pre-sessional teachers. Great idea. Some good posts here. Look forward to seeing this grow and to seeing more of this kind of thing among practitioners.

This workshop presents a genre/corpus informed EAP writing programme for MA students. Following a brief overview of the theoretical and practical bases of the writing development programme Chris Tribb

Steve Kirk's insight:

"This workshop by Chris Tribble and Ursula Wingate presents a genre/corpus informed EAP writing programme for MA students. Following a brief overview of the theoretical and practical bases of the writing development programme Chris Tribble and Ursula Wingate share examples of the teaching materials they are using and give participants an opportunity to experience how the programme is delivered to students. The workshop finishes with a discussion of practical issues related to the design and implementation of this kind of writing development programme."

BALEAP PIM - Process and Practice in EAP. November 14th 2015. Arts Tower, The University of Sheffield.

Steve Kirk's insight:

The lunchtime plenary at ELTC Sheffield's day on EAP processes and practice, a BALEAP PIM. David Hyatt considers the marginalisation of EAP and how we might redress the balance between the perceived status and value of academics and EAP professionals. To this end he draws upon the notion of EAP as 'academic repertoire'. I'm not sure there is much new in this message, but the talk is a good one and reflects a growing sentiment across the sector.

A very welcome collection of webinars on EAP in places we don't often hear much about: Poland, Algeria, Rwanda and beyond. Congratulations to David Read and the team at Sheffield Hallam University (UK) and to OUP for bringing this new event online - and free to all.

"Genre is a concept and construct that crosses disciplinary, national, methodological, conceptual, and pedagogical borders. The aim of "Genre across Borders" (GXB) is to advance genre theory and research by helping scholars and students cross these borders through access and scholarly contribution to reference guides and online networking"

Creative writers are accustomed to the idea that their writing must go through several drafts. However, much of the advice on offer to academic writers proceeds as if all they have to do is produce...

Steve Kirk's insight:

Don't edit. Don't edit. Don't edit. Revise. A great post from one of my favourite bloggers. If, like me, you're struggling with your own academic writing, this will come as a wake-up call. As EAP teachers also, however, how might we best bring our international students to an awareness of this essential facet of good writing?

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